Around the World (Again) Nelson and Abel Tasman National Park

The Abel Tasman National Park. Sunday 10 Nov

It was up early, I am always up so it was no problem for me, and Linda likes to lie a bit but is also able to get into gear at speed (relative) if the need takes it.

So we got our breakfast over and made up packed lunches and leaving Steve's camper/workshop van behind, we jumped into the car to set off towards the peninsular. (do you like Birte's letterbox?)

 

But first we travelled through the fertile plain of the area around the town Richmond, this is hemmed in by the Mt Richmond National park, the vineyards (or wineries as they prefer to call them on this side of the world) are interspersed by high hedged fruit and vegetable fields.
We stooped to take a photo at a barbers and to pick up some pies for lunch.

 

Here the Abel Tasman Sea, that takes a bite out of the South Island right here, ebbs into mud flats, sand banks, river mouths and small inlets, which are full with bird life, an Ornithologists paradise. To the high ground is sheep country and this was spring and each ewe had its lambs (mostly two) gambolling around them.

We arrived at the backpackers paradise town of Moteuka, you can carry on to Takaka and then to Collingwood and Golden bay with its sandy beaches and Cape Farewell.  We had decided we would on this visit be doing the Abel Tasman trail (well part of it, the whole track takes a few days to trek). The Trail is set out in bite size pieces, but take everything you want with you, there are no shops, kiosks or roads, also bring all rubbish out, there are no rubbish bins and if camping do it only in the designated areas and light your fires only in the special pits provided, in the area of the new hostel at Anchorage Bay they provide free firewood for this purpose. The National Parks authority are undertaking of returning the Park to its natural condition, they are killing off introduced flora such as the pine and fir trees, this leaves large tracts of seemingly desolate areas, with grey dead trees but it doesn’t take long for nature to return the hillsides to the fern and shrub covering that is indigenous to New Zealand, with this comes, hopefully, the return of native bird life.

But I am getting ahead of myself. 

We had decided that Birte, Linda and I would take an Aqua Taxi to get into the Park, these run from the small town of Morteuka to various set down and pick up points on beaches within the Park boundaries.

 

We had decided on Anchorage Bay as this had a nice loop walk of a couple of hours, this would also give us time to have our picnic on the beach.  Steve is a mountain man and had decided to just go direct in and do his thing from here. You get loaded on the boat and get towed by a tractor into the water, we passed a chap doing a bit of whitebait fishing, well about to.

The taxi scoots across the water at about 50kmh, the driver, gives a very nice commentary and pops into a couple of bays to show places of interest, like shag breeding colonies or penguins returning from the sea, this area is home of the smallest penguin species, the little blue penguin.

Before long the expanse of Anchorage comes into view, the sea in front of the beach is full of little bobbing yellow objects, this is another way to visit the Abel Tasman and kayak trekking is great way to do it. You get dropped off at one of the designated set-down/pick-up points and then depending on how long and how far you are doing, you get picked up either in a couple of hours or more likely a couple of days.  The girls dabbled their twinkle toes in the sea before setting off on our little jaunt.

 

We jumped off the taxi and had a look at our map and saw the loop started right beside the brand new backpacker’s hostel, run by the park authorities, what a location. It has been constructed with the environment in mind; all facilities are basic, bunked bed dorms, large communal cooking and eating facilities and functional toilet facilities. No mod cons here, great and what a view, it is a place I would like to stay, may be next time.  

 

We took our time wandering and climbing through some of the remnants of the oldest forests left on the planet.

 

 

The track climbing ever upwards into the fern covered hillside, before long we could catch glimpses of the beaches and the beach down below, we eventually reached a very steep incline that lead to a look out, I had, silly fool, not brought any glucose tablets and on reaching the top was glad of the seats as my sugar depleted body recovered. My heart was pumping 20 to the dozen and I am sure those things floating in front of my eyes were not birds or flies. Sat for a few moments, recovered my breath and took in the view, it was amazing.

 

We then descended from the lookout descending until we saw a golden beach below us, little did we know but that was to be our beach, the beach that we would have our picnic on.

We arrived and found only a single kayak bobbing in the surf, the occupants lying on the beach, we arrived through the lush undergrowth and took up our spot at the water’s edge, we unpacked our sandwiches and warding off the terns (the boss one was quite aggressive) had our picnic. About 20 mtr away, a pair of red billed Oyster Catchers poked and prodded in the sand looking for a few worms.

Birte decided, the water looked so inviting so disappeared down the beach for a dip, while we dozed and took in the wonderful view of the pristine bay with a solitary bobbing yatch and my feet.

Then it was time to get back to Anchorage and wait for the Taxi to return to pick up not only us, but a load of Kayakers that would also be returning with us.

The WaterTaxi arrived, all loaded and we headed back towards Morteuka , stopping on the way to catch a glimpse of a penguin bobbing in the surf.

It was then time to head for home Steve picked us up, we had a drink at the very nice café at the start or end of the trail depending on if your coming in or going out, then it was back to Nelson, Next time it will not be for just a day in the Abel Tasman Natural Park.

  

The Next day it was a flight down to Christchurch and then on to Sydney.